I am just an old gal, with some time on her hands, and loose thoughts from time to time... Wife, mother of 8, grandmother of 20 and great-grandmother of 22

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Would you get on the bus?

I was watching the PBS show last night called Freedom Riders.It was where a bus left Washington, D.C. and Nashville, Tennesseein what I believe was 1961.

The riders were white as well as black. It showed the hardships,Which included beatings and death. Cars following, threateningriders and drivers, tires flattening, bus burnings.

As I watched this piece of history, I had to ask myself and wonderedabout others… Would you have signed the paper and got on the bus?The paper that was signed, was your understanding that you wereriding a bus, in a protest of civil rights and the consequences of thatride. I don’t think death was one of them, but it had to be an unwrittenthought, when getting on that bus. After all they would be riding thruthe deepest of the Southern states. Where the KKK was still aliveand well, and more lively than it is now. Not to say they aren’t stillalive and well. Would you believe in civil rights so much, with somuch passion, knowing you could be beaten, and in your subconsciousknow you could die? Would you sign the paper and get on the bus.If the times today were as bad as they were then?

I got to say, to be honest, that I wouldn’t. I might stand up and saythat the black deserve the same rights as I have, I might go to aprotest in the safety of my own town, but ride a bus thru theDeep south…no way… Sure it is easy now, you can Twitter, youcan Facebook, write a blog about it, that is the easy way.

So what do you think? Would you have? For those of you in yourlate 60’s or 70’s, or early 80’s. Did you think when you were inyour 20’s/30’s, that you wish you lived close enough to go?If you didn’t have a family who depended on you, would you havegone?